Russia plans record defense spending by 2027

Russia has planned record defense spending, with the Kremlin's defense budget set to become the highest since the full-scale war against Ukraine began in 2022. The aggressor country will sharply increase defense expenditures in 2027 to 17.1 trillion rubles, or about $202.6 billion, according to Reuters citing Russian government documents. This figure is approximately 27% higher than the amount originally budgeted. Over the next three years, the Kremlin intends to spend about 50 trillion rubles on defense, while the exact volume of military expenditures for 2026 remains classified. The Russian government has also revised its 2026 budget deficit forecast to 3.2% of GDP, up from 1.6% previously. Total budget expenditures are set to increase by 13.2% to 48.6 trillion rubles. To cover the deficit, authorities plan to raise net borrowing to 5 trillion rubles in 2026 and use 459 billion rubles from the National Welfare Fund. Oil and gas revenue forecasts were lowered from 8.9 to 7.6 trillion rubles. Russia already spends half its budget on war, with one day of conflict costing 65 billion rubles.